Shipley says offense a play away, Uiagalelei says it's "going to burst open"

Uiagalelei and Shipley have the confidence the offense is going to improve.

by Zachary Wagner - Correspondent - Sun Sep 19 14:51:03 GMT-04:00 2021

CLEMSON - The Clemson offense has been, well, lackluster, to say the least so far this season. After a dismal performance of two rushing yards and just three points to open the season against Georgia, it seemed the offense may have righted the ship against South Carolina State after rushing for 240 yards and putting up 49 points.

The Tigers offense once again sputtered inside of Death Valley against Georgia Tech on Saturday afternoon, however, scoring only 14 points and being outgained in total yards by the Yellow Jackets (309-284).

We knew coming into this season Clemson had a lot to replace on offense. We knew replacing Trevor Lawrence and Travis Etienne was going to be tricky, but most people forgot the Tigers were having to replace their two best wide receivers from last year in Amari Rodgers and Cornell Powell.

The receivers are young this year, the quarterback is young, the running back room is super young, the offensive line is young -- the offense is just young this season and I think we have seen that the first three weeks of the season.

Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei thinks even though the offense is experiencing growing pains, they’re close to busting the offense open and finding the true potential of all the talent on the field.

“We can’t press, the offense is going to bust open one of these games,” said Uiagalelei after the Clemson win over Tech. “It’s going to burst open and we’re going to keep rolling. We have to keep going back into practice every week, and be patient and not press.”

Uiagalelei was 18-of-25 for 126 yards through the air against Tech and also rushed for 46 yards on eight carries, including a huge third-down conversion late in the fourth quarter. The sophomore quarterback says the offense is one of the best in the country and they just need to get back in stride.

“We know our offense, and we’re the best offense in the country and we know that,” said Uiagalelei. “When we do the mental things and the little things right, we’re going to burst open. I feel like if we go back to work and we don’t press and learn from our mistakes, we’re going to get better. We’re going to be fine.”

Uiagalelei was not the only Clemson offensive player to share the same sentiment about the offense being one play away from finding that stride, running back Will Shipley said they're on the verge as well.

“We really put together some good drives,” Shipley said. “We have one play every drive that stops us. That 4th-and-2, I have to get that and move the sticks forward. I think this offense is just one play away from really being great. I think we can get there as long as we take our mistakes and continue to press on.”

Shipley found the endzone on the ground for both of Clemson's touchdowns against Tech, and he is slowly becoming a crowd favorite inside of Death Valley. The true freshman knows they have work to do.

“We have to make adjustments when some things aren’t going our way,” Shipley said. “We weren’t helping ourselves in some scenarios, either. But like I said we are one or two plays away on each drive from putting more points on the board. There are so many points left off the scoreboard for us. Those little details, it goes to show you that one little thing can account for a touchdown.”

The Clemson offense has yet to find its identity this year. I think we saw them try and take a peek at it in the second half in the final two drives of the game, with a lot of Shipley and Uiagalelei on the ground, but at some point, Tony Elliott has to try and attack downfield and open up the playbook for the offense. It’s easy to plan for Clemson when all they have done is attack the short and intermediate routes and run the ball on first and second down.

Lots of points left off the scoreboard and no downfield attack have been the downfall of the Tigers offense so far this season. But, like the starting quarterback and (hopefully soon) starting running back have both said, this offense knows its talent and is only a play away from figuring it out.

We will see if the offense can figure it out next week on the road up in Raleigh, North Carolina when they take on North Carolina State in the first true road test of the season.